Korean publishers survey suspected AI bulk book-buying and demand compensation framework

What happened

The Korean Publishers Association has begun surveying bookstores, distributors, secondhand booksellers and publishers about potentially AI-related bulk book orders, and plans to form a joint body after the survey to establish compensation arrangements and pursue legislation. Separately, the Korean Publishers Society issued an appeal demanding fair compensation when publications are used for AI training; over 240 publishers and organizations plus 702 authors, translators, illustrators and publishing professionals had joined as of October 21, 2026. Reported by the Korea Times (Lee Hae-rin) on October 22.

The suspected buying spree

Kyobo Book Centre said Wednesday that 10 overseas companies, including businesses in the US and Britain, had approached it since early this year, each seeking one copy of roughly 100,000 titles. Some introduced themselves as wholesalers but denied an AI-training purpose while naming data-related companies as final recipients; Kyobo declined because it could not rule out AI training. Yes24 received a similar bulk used-book inquiry from a US distributor in late August. In Japan, bulk purchases of secondhand philosophy, history and medicine books have likewise fueled AI-scanning suspicions.

Context

Last week the Literature Translation Institute of Korea notified Korean authors after identifying 21 of their books on a compensation eligibility list associated with Anthropic's US copyright settlement. Copyright specialist Park Jung-in (Duksung Women's University) said the core problem is a structure in which rights exist but are difficult to exercise in practice, calling for procedures letting rights holders check training-data sources and use. Publisher head Cho Han-na said individual rights holders cannot effectively confront large overseas technology companies alone.

Scope note

Industry-advocacy item, not a lawsuit. Anthropic is named only via the LTI settlement-list context; no AI company is accused of the bulk purchases, which remain suspected. Companies linked as reference.